Equine
Physical Therapy: Consultations with Doris
Kay Halstead

Renowned expert on horse-rider assymetry problems, myofascial release on
horses and author of Release the Potential will help you to resolve your horse's
issues.

E-mail consultations with Doris Kay Halstead
are available for $40 each. Questions must be related to evaluation
you have done on your horse, as per Release
the Potential and/or Symmetry
in Motion.

To get the best results, you must have evaluated and worked with
your horse yourself, as outlined in Release The Potential. Only
then will you have a reference to what is working and what is not working,
and only then will the answers be clear and usable.

Each question about technique must be accompanied
with your evaluation of the problem related to that physical area.

The E-mail consultation fee covers one detailed exchange with Doris, plus
a short follow-up if desired. If you have further lengthy questions, you
will need to pay for a second consultation.

Directions: Click on the BUY NOW button below and make
your credit card payment through our secure service. Then
with your questions. She will know you have made your payment and will
be expecting your e-mail.

Following
is a transcript of a typical evaluation and response. Note that this example
is a single consultation. The questions and corresponding answers have been
broken into segments by Doris in order to make the answers more clear:

Owner: History: George is an 18 yo appendix quarter horse
gelding that I adopted 6 yrs ago. At that time George had a grade 4 lameness
in his right front foot, which was severely contracted and upright. (He had
been lame for at least 3 yrs when he came to me. He had been shown on the
hunter circuit for several years prior to that. ) Range of motion in his
right hind limb was extremely limited and his right hip appeared atrophied.

Doris: This sounds like a congenital club foot. I have
seen several horses with same. If and I mean IF you have a really good farrier,
they are not a problem although need regular and good attention. This problem
tends to make a horse develop his opposite diagonal more fully than the other.
His rider would have to been very astute as to HOW to get him to strengthen
equally and they are RARE!!! You can catch him up if you work regularly on
his strengthening program. Usually doing shoulder in to renvers to shoulder
in at the walk with horse in self carriage especially with the weak hind
that would usually be his LEFT side toward the wall will get it going. However
you describe a RIGHT HIND problem so I would practice evenly on both sides.
Progress to adding trot work that way. If you are not a fairly good dressage
rider you will not be able to do this. The other thing is lots of hills on
trail making sure he is EVEN in the bridle, with base of his neck kept in
balance evenly between the shoulders.

Owner: George has appeared totally sound for 9 months
now thanks to natural trimming (barefoot). George continues to be toed out
with his right front foot so we keep his lateral wall a little lower than
the medial to allow him to land heel- toe instead of landing on the lateral
wall and rolling his foot in. Range of motion in his right hind limb has
improved about 90% primarily through using TTouch bodywork and groundwork
in combination with light riding. His right hip now appears only slightly
smaller than the left.

Doris: This toeing out is from the shoulder, you need to do some shoulder
freeing up work with him. Shoulder lifts, stretches and immediate retraining
of shoulder movement they are all in Release the Potential. I trust we are
getting more on this Right hind problem later.

Owner: George is turned out all of
the time and does not wear blankets. Equipment: I ride in a saddle from
Balance International which allows his shoulders to fully rotate back as
much as they are capable. My saddle fit was checked by Carol Brett of Balance
2 months ago. I use either a Parelli hackamore or a bridle with a fulmer
full cheek snaffle when I ride. I do not use a nose band and I do not use
any devices (side reins, martingale, draw reins, etc.). I use a full length
girth with elastic at both ends. Dental: His teeth were last checked about
6 months ago and my dentist is a graduate of the Equine Dentistry school
in Idaho – I have thhe utmost confidence
in her. George has never had any significant problems with his teeth that
I am aware of. Standing posture: He prefers to stand on his left front and
right hind. If I square up front, he will stand with his left hind behind
him. He will sometimes unweight his left hind and point his right front foot
even though he now appears sound on the right front foot. (this was his constant
posture for many years.) He often likes to stand with his hind feet touching
if he does square up. He appears left eye dominant and always stands with
his neck turned to his right.

Doris: If all else fails, an easy way to get him to change this diagonal
stance habit is to tape 1/2 of a heavy foam baseball or softball (NOT NERF
but a dense one) to the bottom of his feet L front and R hind Put the flat
side inside the edges of the shoe and duck tape away. I would start for a
few hours and progress to 1/2 day then to every other day. This will change
his habit of which diagonal pair he uses. They do not like to continually
stand on squishy things that are different. I did this once with a driving
pony who drove nicely but had a disturbing scoliosis that the driver could
not help but seeing. After a week of this she drove perfectly straight AMEN.
If this works, an occasional repeat of the foam ball routine may be necessary
if the diagonal dominance seems to return.

Owner: Gaits: He carries much of his weight on his forehand. He likes to
walk off with his front legs first. Knees and hocks appear symmetrical to
me. Shoulders and hips have some limited range of motion. His ribcage bulges
to the left regardless of the direction he is going but this has improved
greatly over the past 2 months. I have been working on this in hand and under
saddle, asking him to move his ribs over with my hand/leg. With regard to
the canter, left lead is easier for him.

Doris: All horses carry their weight on their forehand.
Their center of gravity is just a little behind their shoulders. Unless
a very talented rider did his initial training to encourage self carriage
(which is truly very rare) He has been taught to get his balance off the
reins and actually compounds this forehand problem. Where are you? Perhaps
there is someone that has a clue near you that could help you understand
and coordinate yourself to get him more focused on his hind. You can help
a great deal just making your mind focus on his hind end and KNOW when the
right and left hit the ground each and every step he takes while you are
on him. Every transition should come from your thought of the hind end doing
the slowing down and the push off. YOUR FOCUS there will make him focus there.
All importance of the rein giving these signals should be forgotten. They
are there ONLY for you to assist him in maintaining his head and neck perfectly
balanced BETWEEN his shoulders never to one side or the other even in turns
and especially in transitions. That does not mean to not have bend, just
that the bend has to be equal all the way to the HIND and the neck has
to be CENTERED BETWEEN the shoulder blades. If you can do this consistently
you will have a totally new and incredible horse! MANY PEOPLE SAY THE WORDS
I HAVE SAID, ALMOST NO ONE ACTUALLY HAS A CLUE HOW TO DO IT

Owner: Evaluation: Head: His head appears tilted with his nose to his left
and poll to his right. I can see this when I face him and also when I ride
he tilts his nose to the left even if I am circling right. Head and neck
junctions feel symmetrical, though.

Doris: Try holding his head as high up in the air as you can and keep it
there several minutes, nose up neck in straight line with his poll to nose
You can hold on to either side of the halter if it fits him well and does
not lift into his eyes when you do this. He will tend to tip his head to
his favorite side at first and just let him. After about 2 minutes he can
be convinced to try tipping the other way. This will be more difficult for
him and he may make you let him shift back and forth but after a minute or
two he will allow the stretch fully into the restricted range. Unless you
are unusually strong in your shoulder girdle you will fail at this as it
is really hard to hold your hands over your head that long. If you spread
your feet apart far enough to allow you to extend your elbows fully you have
the best chance to do this. I have held this stretch for 10 minutes at a
time on many occasions. Owners have tried to repeat it when their horse started
getting uneven again and could not do it at all. So you may have to work
up to the strength needed to help him. If you are quite tall or he will let
you stand on something and rest his head on your shoulder you may be able
to make inroads to the stretching he needs that way. His tipping likely started
because he leans on the bit one sided to assist his weaker diagonal.

Owner: Pelvis and hips: Right point of hip is in front of and below left
point of hip. Gluteal muscles feel tight.

Doris: The muscles will relax soon as the fascial restriction release allows
them to. Place the right foot well forward of the position of the left. He
should rest it on the ground so there is full relaxation. Then you guide
the right hip pointer UP till you feel it glide into balanced position. You
might be able to attain the same result if you place the L hind BEHIND the
position of the right and guide the Left hip pointer down. The rule is if
it is down push it up, if it is up push it down etc. Often you cannot tell
which one is the primary and if one does not work try the other., If you
try one and it did not work do not consider that a failure, just an extension
of your evaluation, (Must have been the other one that needed to change.)
Positioning to make the move easier is good in any of the techniques. Think
about how the leverage of the limb would rotate the pelvis. "Hard core" Chiropractic
uses this leverage to change the pelvis but to the point of damage at times.
We are just gently positioning as a hint in the right direction, then encouraging
the horse to do the rest. This ALWAYS results in more lasting change because
the animal has a prayer of KNOWING that he changed for the better. Best to
you., Doris P.S. sometimes doing the "wrong" thing helps them change
correctly anyway. These techniques are gentle enough so you can try any of
them. If they do not need it they do not change. The body is always trying
to move into homeostasis if we give it a chance.

Owner: Neck/Shoulder junctions appeared the same, but left shoulder appears
larger when I stand at his tail, on a stool, and look down his spine.

Doris: You are likely seeing the difference in strength
L / R that you describe. We also over develop that muscle group by constantly
mounting from the left. From now on, get on from a mounting block unless
you have to do otherwise, like on a trail ride then you can still at least
find an uphill side.

Owner: Thoracic and Lumbar spine and tail: Did not notice any problems.
Ribs: Did not notice any rib subluxations but entire ribcage appears postioned
more to his left.

Doris: I bet he has a slightly rotated thoracic vertebrae some where near
the apex of the bend of that bulgy rib cage. Run your fingers down his rib
cage like you are playing a glissando on the piano. There will be a spot
that feels like a traffic speed bump. Put your hand ON that rib and lean
into him. Use his lead and tail to coax him into bending around you so the
corresponding rib on the other side has room to float back out and the two
ribs will de-rotate the thoracic vertebra.

Owner: Gelding scar felt cold. Tehniques used and questions: 1. I used the
C7 release on his left side, which he allowed for 6 minutes. How often should
I do this technique? I am assuming it is only used once per session.

Doris: This release usually takes me over 15 minutes to get lasting effects.
If you get it fully released, then rock him left right at the shoulders while
still holding his neck slightly left, encouraging his even neck bend to the
side you released until HE can continue to maintain the head neck position
and let you switch his weighted leg, by rocking him from one leg to the other,
at the same time. Then IF you ride him symmetrically, you will never have
to do it again. That is the beauty of fascial release done well.

Owner: 2. I tried to adjust his atlas, (since his head is tilted,) by cupping
my hands over his poll and hanging, but since he has been taught to lower
his head away from pressure, he would not press against my hands, he just
lowers his head. His poll does not appear sore or tender at all. Could there
be another cause of the head tilting since his head/neck junctions seemed
symmetrical? Are there any other techniques to correct the head tilt? I did
not notice any thoracic vertebral rotation, which I noted might cause head
tilt.

Doris: See above, I answered this already

Owner: 3. I did the release of the shoulder blade muscle restrictions but
could not get my fingers in very far. How often can this be repeated? I also
did the shoulder lift and circumduction.

Doris: Sounds like you need to do this again but do it AFTER you get the
C7 balanced and the rib cage straight. You can do these techniques often
as you like, but when you get all in the right order and ride evenly, you
do NOT have to keep doing them unless he slips on the mud, knocks a hip on
the doorway etc.

Owner: 4. I did the gelding scar release for about 20
minutes. I am not sure if I did it correctly though. I held it, applying
pressure to it between my thumb and fingers, i.e., lightly squeezing it.
It still feels a little bit cool and there still feels like there is a tight
rubber band running front to back from his sheath to between his hind legs,
but I could not feel it pull up when his head moved up and down or right
and left, and the scar area felt quiet with leg movement. Should I continue
to work on that tight band that I feel?

Doris: That band is normal. The bands you want to get rid of are the ones
reaching up into the tissues of the abdomen. If there is scar tied to the
cremasteric muscle, which is a slip of the lateral abdominals, then they
have a hard time engaging their abdominals for self carriage. and when releasing
the scar you can feel the connection up into the abdominal muscles each time
they move a hind leg.

Owner: 5. For his pelvis, I held the right hind leg up, which he seems to
greatly enjoy, but after less than a minute he insisted on putting it down
and then immediately unweighted the left hind. How often can I do this technique
and should I repeat it more than once in a session if he cannot seem to hold
it for very long? I plan on trying the alternate technique in the book, too.

Doris: Here too see above, I already answered this one too

Owner: 6. I tried doing the psoas release but found it very difficult to
hold any significant pressure on the area due to my lack of strength, and
the angle at which I was working. Does one push up towards the top of the
hip? or push outward towards the inside of the horses leg? And how much pressure
does one apply?

Doris: The psoas is so deep you have to release it primarily by intention.
Though I do not think this is a primary in your horse. Do check the adductors,
(muscles on the inside of the upper leg) and if they have any tight bands,
release them with direct pressure that he is not disturbed by, just holding
for several minutes.

Owner: I also wanted to note that I have been working on my symmetry with
a PT and Rolfer for the past year and truly appreciate the importance of
including rider symmetry in your book!

Doris: Great. It is so true, We not only put our body asymmetries into our
horses but a response of our EVERY thought. Have you gotten so you can pick
stalls equally well and symmetrically both left and right handed? Also mounting
from either side? We cannot expect our horses to be any more symmetrical
than we are.

Hope this helps. Doris

To consult Doris: Click on the BUY NOW button below
and make your credit card payment through our secure service. Then
with your questions. She will know you have made your payment and will be expecting
your e-mail.